


Hold You Close

by blacktithe



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:07:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26526463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktithe/pseuds/blacktithe
Summary: The Avengers are called in to secure a lab containing a deadly virus that threatens to do more damage to the human population than Thanos could have dreamed of. An unforeseen complication leaves one of their own vulnerable and Steve wrestling with feelings he never realized were there.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	Hold You Close

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for Star Spangled Bingo 2020 on Tumblr and is meant to fill the square: sudden realization of love.
> 
> Warning: This story details a potentially deadly virus, and the impact it has on our favorite superhero team. Please do not read if the current global pandemic is an issue for you as some of the events in this story may be triggering for those individuals.

A bracing wind prickled along Steve’s skin as he examined the terrain from the open bay door.

“Alright,” he said, sliding his arm into the straps of his iconic shield, “we secure the biolab and get out. AXEL may already be on sight. So keep your eyes peeled.”

“I’d rather just keep mine open. Thanks.”

Steve quirked an eyebrow at the woman beside him. 

Y/N Adler joining the team had been like a breath of fresh air. Her wit was as sharp as the daggers in her hidden forearm sheaths. Her willingness to jump and and do what was needed regardless of the personal cost made her the perfect backup. That’s why Steve always requested her for a mission. He knew he could trust her no matter what.

“You know what Adler,” Steve quipped, a sly smile taking over his face.

Sam’s hand landed with a thud on Steve’s shoulder. “Nice to know I’m not the only one giving you a hard time.” 

Steve smiled at his friend. 

“Focus,” Steve said, schooling his features into the perfect image of stoicism. “We’re going to have a serious issue on our hands if this virus gets out.”

Kiamichi Laboratories efforts to create a wide spectrum vaccine for respiratory illness had resulted in a Frankenstien of a disease they had dubbed the Lactentem Mortem Virus. A report from their head of research, Dr. Isaac Wilforth, showed the virus had the potential to wipe out a third of the planet's population before anyone even knew it was being spread with no known cure.

AXEL’s desire to weaponize the virus seemed inevitable. There wasn’t a government on Earth that wouldn’t give the militarized terrorist organization a king’s ransom to stop it from decimating their population.

The trio had no sooner stepped onto the frozen ground than the sound of shots could be heard inside the building.

“Tony,” Steve asked, placing a hand to his ear to activate his com, “what do you see?”

Tony zipped past them in his iconic suit, FRIDAY quickly scanning the building. “Looks like our friends sent us a welcome party. We’ve got snipers to the south and at least three more inside.”

“Sam?”

The wings of Sam’s flight suit snapped into place. “On it.”

Steve looked down at the woman by his side. Y/N slammed a loaded clip into place and switched off the safety. With a crisp nod, the two strode towards the entrance in lock step.

* * *

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Bullets ricocheted off of Steve’s shield as he ducked around the corner. He leaned his head back against the wall and groaned in frustration. Knowing that AXEL had people on the inside is the kind of information you want before going into a potentially dangerous situation. That is the kind of think that keeps you from be ambushed by the “hostages” you are trying to save. 

Another volley of shots rang out as a blur of black kevlar appeared on the edge of Steve’s vision. Y/N was advancing on the gunmen. She darted around the corner, dropped down into a slide that would make any a major leaguer proud. One shooter went down. Then another until she came to a stop behind the desk to his right. 

“Steve! They’re headed to the lab!” She shouted as she reloaded her weapons.

He stuck his head out just far enough to see two men in black heading down the hall they were desperately trying to get to. “Son of a bitch.”

Steve racked his brain for a solution. Sam and Tony were on the other side of the facility taking out the second strike team that sealed the exits behind them. He looked at the gunmen pinning him and Y/N down. 

The only path to the lab was a single hallway on the far side of the room, directly in the line of fire.

“I can make it.” Steve’s head snapped in Y/N’s direction. “If you draw their fire, I can get the guy on the right and be down the hall before they can catch me.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

She lifted her right shoulder in a shrug. “Then you can take out the ones focused on me and go to the lab yourself.”

An unpleasant tingle ran down Steve’s spine. There were a thousand ways this could go wrong. Unfortunately, they were out of options.

He locked eyes with Y/N. Her eyes were clear and focused. No doubt in sight. If she believed she could do this, he was going to believe her too.

Steve nodded in agreement, and the corner of Y/N’s mouth ticked up into a smirk.

Steve drew his pistol and started the silent count. 

_One_

She nodded.

_Two_

He tightened the grip on his shield

_Three_

Everything moved in slow motion as Steve stepped around the corner. He saw the gunmen turn towards him. Lifting his pistol, Steve fired a single shot as he brought the shield up in front of his chest. He squeezed the trigger again. And the man closest to him went down.

A hail of bullets reverberated against his shield. Steve turned his head to the side and watched in awe as Y/N broke into a sprint, squeezing of shots as she went.

Another gunman fell. Steve hurtled his shield towards the remaining two, taking them down with a single toss. He pulled his shield loose from where it had embedded itself in the wall and took off after Y/N.

* * *

Men in combat gear seemed to be lurking behind every corner as Steve fought his way towards the lab. He could only hope his presence had been the distraction Y/N had hoped. 

“Drop it!” 

Steve rounded the corner, the lab finally coming into view, and the sight in front of him turned his blood to ice.

“Not the best choice of words, princess,” a heavily accented male voice replied. “If I drop this vial, you and I will both be dead. Not to mention your little friend there.”

Steve pushed down his fear and stepped up beside Y/N. Her eyes cut to him for a moment before returning her attention to the man holding the vial of green liquid. 

“I believe the lady asked you to put it down,” Steve said, his voice cold and hard in a way only the Captain could manage.

Y/N tightened her grip on her pistol and took a step forward. “Well?”

A sinister grin slid across the man’s face.

“You aren’t going to shoot me.”

The muscles in Y/N’s jaw twitched. Steve could practically see her doing the math. He as he prayed he was wrong, he knew what she was about to do.

Y/N closed the gap in the blink of an eye. Steve never saw her reach for the blade, but he could clearly see it disappear to the hilt under the man’s jaw. His wide startled eyes showing just how far he had underestimated the “princess” in front of him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the only sound was that of his gurgled breath.

Y/N slipped the vial from the man’s hand as his body began to sag under its own weight. She yanked her dagger free and turned Steve with a smile, wiggling the little vial at him. Steve couldn’t help but huff a laugh at her antics. He started to shake his head at her, but his eye caught something at the edge of his vision. A small stream of green liquid was flowing from a pouch in the man’s vest.

His heart began to race.

“Y/N!”

She followed his gaze to the floor. “Shit.”

An alarm blared overhead. Red warning lights began to blink as the laboratory doors began to close.

“No!”

Steve darted forward through the rapidly closing door, his broad shoulders barely clearing the space. He spun on his heels and took a hold of the door’s smooth glass edge. He dug in his heels and pulled with all his might, but it was no use. The door slid from his grasp as it closed with a resounding, leaving a wide-eyed Y/N on the other side.

“NO!”

Steve slammed his fist against the glass. It rattled in it’s frame, but nothing more. Steve gripped his shield and slammed it into the clear barrier. Nothing.

“Steve.”

“Damn it!” He hit the glass again.

“Steve!” 

He stopped, shield raised to strike again, and looked down at Y/N. The look of resignation on her face made his heart lurched. 

The sound of boots thundering down the hall drew Steve’s attention. His gaze drifted over his right shoulder. His jaw clenched. He didn’t have time to deal with whatever mercenaries AXEL was sending. His only goal was to get to Y/N.

Tightening the grip on his shield, he dropped into a defensive stance as the pounding of the boots drew closer.

“Cap!”

Sam sprinted around the corner, Tony and Dr. Wilforth close on his heels.

Steve’s shoulders sagged with relief. If anyone could get Y/N out of there, it would be them.

“We’ve got to move fast,” he said, dropping his shield and turning back towards the door. 

Sam didn’t hesitate. Racing to his friend’s side, he helped Steve pull at the seam in the glass. Their fingers slid across the smooth surface, not even their nails were able to find purchase.

Steve growled. He turned to see that Tony and Dr. Wilforth watching them from the same position they had been in before. 

“What are you doing?” he demanded. “We have to get her out of there.”

A look of sorrow filled Dr. Wilforth’s face. “There is no way out.”

Steve’s brows knit together. He took a step forward. “What are you saying?”

“He’s saying that those doors can’t open until the room finishes decontamination protocol.” Tony took a step forward and pointed towards the room. “It’s Stark tech. Nobody goes in or out until everything is clean.”

Steve turned to see the decontamination sprinklers dropping from the ceiling, dousing everything inside in a hard fast rain designed to strip everything away. Y/N stood at the edge of the room, looking back at him with a sad smile as the sprinklers pelted her with the spray. 

“The local authorities have already been alerted.” Tony stated. “Full hazmat teams will be here in the next twenty minutes. They’ll set up a clean space. Get everyone inside to a secure medical facility where they can…”

The way his friend’s voice trailed off sent a cold shiver down the soldier’s spine. That creeping dread only grew when he saw the look on the man’s face.

“Where they can what?” Tony sighed. “Where they can what, Tony?” 

“Where they can keep the virus contained.”

“And Y/N?”

He didn’t have to a word. The way Tony refused to meet his eyes said it all.

A scream of rage lodged itself in Steve’s throat. He locked his jaw to keep it in. He tried to school his features before turning back to Y/N.

He could just make out the tear running down her cheek. Her lower lip trembled as she forced a brave smile into place.

“I’ll be okay,” she promised. “Everything will be okay.”

Steve’s mouth went dry. Every fiber of his being wanted to believe her, but deep down, he knew it was all a lie.

* * *

It had taken nearly twenty-four hours to get Y/N back to the compound. If anyone other than Tony Stark had been promising the tech to keep everyone safe, the local governments never would have allowed her to be moved that far. But there she was. Once again isolated in her own glass cage.

Steve watched in silence as she thanked the doctor that took yet another sample of her blood. They must have taken a thousand samples in the last two days. The thought alone made Steve’s blood boil. Everyone was more interested in seeing the way the virus progressed through her body than actually curing her. If it wasn’t for the fact that Tony and Bruce were upstairs with the good doctor desperately trying to create a cure, he would have broken into the lab and smashed their precious samples out of spite. 

“Hey,” she greeted.

Steve did his best to return the radiant smile Y/N gave him, but it fell short.

Dispite her smile, the signs of the disease were already making themselves known. The whites of her eyes had taken on a reddish hue. Her skin looked drawn as pale, like it barely stretched over her bones.

Watching her rapidly deteriorating state had a lump forming in the back of Steve’s throat, but he pushed it down. She didn’t need another sympathetic buffoon. She needed her Captain. 

“Hey, Y/N,” he said, forcing himself to stand up a bit straighter. “Are they treating you alright in here?”

She shrugged. “It’s not bad for a fishbowl, but at least there is a view.” She gestured to the floor to ceiling windows that made up the far side of her room. “Definitely not the worst place in the world to die.” Her smile faltered.

A jolt of pain shot through Steve’s heart. 

“Hey, don’t talk like that. Bruce and Tony are working with the doc to find a cure. You’re going to be fine.”

Y/N nodded, a tear making its way down her face.

“You’ll be here the whole way right?”

She placed her hand on the barrier. Steve quickly covered it with his own.

“I promise. I won’t leave you behind.”

Her smile crept back into place. 

It was a promise they had made on their first mission and renewed on each one after that. No matter what happened, they wouldn’t leave a teammate behind.

“You know,” Y/N stopped short when a coughing fit took over her body. She took a deep breath and tried to start again, but it only caused her to cough harder.

“Y/N?” Steve asked when he saw her face turning red. She gasped and fell to her knees “Y/N!”

A team of doctors in hazmat suits rushed in while Steve watched on in wide-eyed horror as one of the strongest people he had ever met went limp as a rag doll in front of him.

* * *

Every muscle in Steve’s body ached. He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting in the little plastic chair outside of Y/N’s room, but he knew it had to of been at least the better part of a day. Steve lifted his tired eyes to study the figure in the room across the way.

Y/N looked like a corpse. Her skin was ashen now. Her cheeks hollow. The bruises under her eyes were almost purple. The only signs of life were the slight rise and fall of her chest and the steady beeping of the heart monitor telling him she was still in the fight.

Every breath she took looked almost painful as her body shuddering with each exhale. Steve wondered how long it would be before they put her on a ventilator. Would there even be a point? They’d tried every drug combination known to man to stop the virus’s progression, but nothing had worked.

Steve felt a tear sting at the back of his eye. He leaned his forearms against his bent knees and let his head hang low.

The chair next to him creaked. He shifted his gaze to see Sam taking a seat beside him before turning his eyes back to the floor.

“You eat anything yet?” Sam asked.

“No.”

“You know she’d kick your ass if she knew you weren’t taking care of yourself right?”

Steve pushed himself upright, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned into the back of the chair. “Maybe.”

“Then let’s go get some lunch. FRIDAY can call us if anything changes.”

“Of course.”

“No.” Steve shook his head. “I promised I wouldn’t leave her.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed for a moment as he studied his friend.

A look of devastation clouded Steve’s features. Deep lines were embedded between his eyebrows and at the corners of his mouth. It was like he had aged nearly ten years over night.

Sam giving a mirthless laugh. “You love her. “ 

Steve’s head snapped in his direction. “What?”

“You’re in love with her.” 

Those words rolled around in Steve’s head like a pinball, lighting up the synapses of his brain until a sudden weight came crashing down on him. His heart began to race. His chest grew tight. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out. His eyes moved to Y/N’s prone form, a single tear making its way down his cheek as the truth of Sam’s words sank in.

Sam clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll go get us some lunch. Just do us both a favor and tell her will you?”

Steve’s eyes never left Y/N’s room. He waited until Sam turned the corner before rising to his feet and slowly making his way towards the isolation chamber. 

“Y/N,” he said in a horse whisper, “I know you probably can’t hear me, but there is something I need to tell you. I probably should have told you a long time ago, but I never...” He took a shuddering breath. “I love you. I love you, and I need to pull through this because I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose you.”

Steve’s forehead fell against the glass with a thud as the tears he had been holding at bay began to silently fall.

* * *

The constant beeping that had been his reassurance for the last month stopped as they detached the last of the leads from her body. Every muscle in his body tensed at the sudden silence, but Steve reminded himself that there was no need for it now. Her fight was over.

Dr. Wilforth gave him a small nod as he passed. Steve quietly thanked him before turning his attention back to the room.

The last few days had been a living nightmare.

Steve had been keeping his vigil outside of her room when his eyelids had grown heavy. He had just started to drift off when the heart monitor gave a loud scream. His heart leapt into his throat. He raced to the room and watched helplessly as Y/N thrashed violently on the bed. Doctors and nurses flooded the room. Soon he wasn’t able to see her through the swarm of people. It was only two minutes after they shocked her back to life that word came down from the lab that they had a cure.

Tony had stumbled across an anomaly in the virus’s cell structure that Bruce and Dr. Wilforth were able to exploit to create a cure at the midnight hour. 

Steve shook away the memory and watched as Y/N sat up in bed, fully dressed, listening carefully as the nurse went over what she needed to look for over the next few days.

A swarm of butterflies erupted inside of him as the door to the isolation chamber swung open and Y/N stepped out into the world for the first time in over a month. A smile like the sun lit up her face when her eyes landed on Steve waiting just a few feet away.

She took a hesitant step towards him, and it was all Steve could do to keep from racing to her.

They stopped just a few feet from each other.

“You’re here,” she said.

“I promised I would be.”

She lifted her hand like she was going to place it on the glass. Steve lifted his hand to meet hers. Only this time, instead of a cold barrier, he touched warm skin. Their fingers intertwined. Steve took his first deep breath in a month before pulling her tight against his chest. He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in.

Steve had been convinced he had watched her breath her last. Now he was holding her in his arms, and he swore he would never let her go again.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments and kudos


End file.
